1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention is directed to a bearing hanger assembly for a drive shaft, and more particularly, to a radially compliant bearing hanger assembly for use in an aircraft or industrial drive system.
2. Description of Related Art
Bearing hangers for supporting rotating drive shafts are typically utilized in aircraft and industrial drive systems. In aircraft, bearing hangers are often used in a section of an airframe that is folded into a stowage position for shipping or storage, such as the tail section of a helicopter. In these applications, a rotating shaft, such as the drive shaft of a tail rotor assembly, can experience radial, axial or angular misalignment when the tail section is reassembled into an operational position.
There are several types of bearing hangers known in the art to accommodate radial, axial and/or angular misalignment of rotating shafts. These include, for example, spherical bearing elements, elastomeric bearing elements and visco-elastic bearing elements. A spherical bearing element is often used to directly attach a bearing hanger to an airframe or bulkhead structure to accommodate misalignment of a shaft. Spherical bearing elements are well suited to accommodate angular misalignment, but they are incapable of accommodating radial misalignment of a drive shaft. In contrast, elastomeric and visco-elastic bearing elements are designed to accommodate radial, axial and angular misalignment. However, elastomeric and visco-elastic bearing elements are susceptible to fatigue failure over time due to continuing flexure stress.
It would be beneficial therefore to provide a bearing hanger assembly for a rotating drive shaft that can accommodate radial, axial and angular misalignment, while not being susceptible to fatigue failure caused by repetitive flexure.